Leading from the top
Train operators are under pressure to cut costs following the McNulty report. Productivity can be improved by improving employee engagement, says Juliette Alban-Metcalfe
T
he McNulty report requirements denote a seismic change in the industry, putting companies under unprecedented pressure to leverage more for less and work differently. That’s the bad news. But there’s plenty of good news – there are simple, proven ways that leaders in your company can rise to the challenge
through their people in a sustainable way. The report requires companies to develop and execute a new
vision for how they work, with the full support of their workforce. Specific requirements are ‘leadership and energy’ and ‘whole organisation effort’ as key to a successful response. The industry is no stranger to this kind of pressure, and has, for many years, been aware
of the need to leverage performance under unrelenting pressure. However, we will soon see which companies succeed in the new world and which become casualties in the drive for greater efficiency and a cultural change in how they work internally and externally. Success, in the form of leveraging whole-organisation effort, will
be achieved where employees feel they have a part in developing the vision for where the company is going, and how it will get there. These employees will be enabled to harness their strengths at whatever level, and thus feel motivated and committed to achieving that vision. They will be encouraged to continually look for better, more efficient ways of working, and at how partnership can thrive.
Everyone can be a winner
The type of organisation described above will feel quite utopian for many. Indeed, such places are not that common, but they do exist. They’re not characterised by high levels of pay, or huge investment in perks or formal development opportunities. The difference between the winners and the losers in this game is nothing to do with physical or fiscal factors, it is all about culture – how leaders behave – and it is within the reach of all companies. Organisational research has never before converged so strongly
on one factor that differentiates the successful organisations from the unsuccessful: employee engagement. Engagement has been shown, through numerous studies, to have a strong link with innovation, productivity, profitability, safety, lower employee absenteeism and turnover. It is regarded as so critical to the success of this country that it has been the subject of the government’s ongoing MacLeod Review of Employee Engagement for the past three years. Engaged employees feel that they are getting as much from the
company as the company is getting from them. Findings suggest that around 20 per cent of employees are naturally engaged at work – they want to give their best. Around 20 per cent are actively disengaged – they are uninterested in contributing to the success of the company, and may be actively sabotaging it. This leaves a massive 60 per cent who are neither. Those companies that can positively move this 60 per cent into engagement, and thus harness their discretionary effort, will lead in the industry. A consistent finding is that the most stressful and disengaging
aspect of anyone’s job is their immediate boss. At the same time, the right kind of leadership behaviour can have the most powerful positive effect on an employees’ engagement. Of course, there are other factors that can create a marked improvement, such as a new role, or enhanced facilities, but none of these has a sustained effect. The Real World Group has been researching the behaviours that are proven to enhance engagement for 10 years. The leadership model
‘Engaged employees feel that they are getting as much from the company as the company is getting from them’
PAGE 30 AUGUST 2011
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